Is a 35 karat engagement ring a bit "too much"?

[underpants]

see here - can't post pics on this iPad

[In_The_Wind]

1. Yes!

[Electric Monk]

2. pics

(more at the link)

[underpants]

3. Thanks

[Electric Monk]

4. You can barely see the Sierra-Leonean blood. It really polished up nicely. nt

[dogman]

5. If it's a blood diamond

yes

[hunter]

34. They're all "blood diamonds" one way or another.

The only exceptions being diamonds you might find yourself and keep for yourself or give to another as art.

Otherwise a diamond is just a rock.

Repeat: A diamond is just a rock.

Things have gone horribly, horribly wrong in a society when rocks become money.

Yes, gold has the same problem.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

39. Which societies that don't use minerals as money are you thinking of as comparisons? N.T.

[hunter]

40. ???

Really?

[anigbrowl]

45. That's a very legitimate question

Diamonds are a highly unusual form of matter (on this planet anyway), and making them look nice requires a lot of labor. Between this natural scarcity and the further difficulty of polishing them, this makes them a useful economic signaling mechanism, as well being pretty to look at. Your comment that 'they're just rocks' suggests you don't understand this too well. the reality is that virtually every culture fetishizes rare objects for the purpose of differentiating social status. Even some animals do it.

[mopinko]

47. they arent that rare.

lots of prettier and more rare "rocks" out there. they are valuable because of a rigged market.

[WinkyDink]

66. True. The diamond "market" is a De Beers monopoly. Diamonds are plentiful, but the supply is VERY

limited and controlled.

[Art_from_Ark]

48. LOL

I'll buy all the gold you have for $10 an ounce, even if it's just 10 Karat. That would be a super deal for you, since by your reckoning gold should be worthless.

[hunter]

73. All the gold I have is only valuable for what it is and who gave it to me.

There's not much of it anyways, just a few small heirlooms that will probably be melted down by gold-hoarding morons when the stories surrounding these objects are lost.

I can't imagine myself ever going out of my way to buy or sell gold and diamonds.

Most gold mines are toxic hell holes; very bad for the earth.

Diamond mines blow chunks too, and are entirely unnecessary now that diamonds and other hard sparkling stones can be synthesized.

I regard gold and diamond hoarders with the same disdain as I do people who kill elephants for ivory or rhinos for their horns.

It's just a primitive, scummy, and ignorant thing to do.

[Art_from_Ark]

77. I agree that gold mines are a source of concern

A lot of them are poorly run operations, especially in 3rd World countries, and the use of mercury leaching to extract the gold is especially bad for the environment. However, they are also a way for 3rd World countries to get hard currency and to develop infrastructure. These days, if a mining company wants to set up operations in a 3rd World country, it will often have to set up infrastructure that not only it, but local residents as well, can use. That includes roads, power lines, water supply.

Some companies make promises but fail to deliver. I could mention some really bad cases, but I won't in a public forum for personal reasons. All I will say is that Chinese mining operations are particularly bad, but there are a few Western mining companies that have a pretty bad reputation, too.

Anyway, most of the gold that is available today was dug up a long time ago. Are you going to hold me in disdain because I like to collect old American gold coins that were made more than 80 years ago? Is it a terrible thing that I consider these coins to be a way of helping myself to prepare for the eventual day when I can no longer work and would otherwise have to rely on a pittance from SS or maybe even from a private-sector pension that might go bankrupt before I have a chance to collect anything? Savings account and CD interest is at historical lows, 401k's are iffy, and don't even get me started on the stock market.

Collecting gold coins from the distant past doesn't hurt anyone. But it can, if done knowledgeably, help to supplement income.

[hunter]

78. My grandpa and dad collected old gold and silver coins, my dad for much the same reasons you do.

I don't know if my dad has any left, since he and my mom retired from their day-jobs. They are full time artists now.

My dad usually sold coins at times of great adventure. (As artists, their lives have always been adventure!)

I've got a small gold coin from the collection, more valuable to me because it belonged to my grandpa.

[Art_from_Ark]

79. I've got a gold coin from my grandpa, too

It's been in the family for at least 83 years. I probably couldn't sell that one, either

[DFW]

80. You wouldn't believe how many of them still exist, too

Part of my job involves working with central banks around the world, and some of them never melted down their gold coin reserves into ingots. Canada recently noticed they had over 230,000 old Canadian $5 and $10 gold coins from 1912-1914, the only years they were made. They sold about 30,000 of them onto the collector market and then melted the rest. I have seen some central banks in out-of-the-way places around the world that still had old American $5, $10 and $20 gold pieces numbering in the tens of thousands. In some instances, I have been asked to check them for authenticity, and they are the real thing.

[Art_from_Ark]

81. Those old gold coins are often worth more as collector coins than as ingots

The American coins almost always carry a premium in the US unless they are damaged.

For example, why melt a $1 US gold coin with only 1/20 of an ounce of gold in it, when the collector value is at least double the melt value?

[DFW]

82. But $1 gold coins are almost never found in banks

The central banks, if they have these things, usually have them as relics from a century ago, before wire transfers, and when payments between countries were often made in gold coin. The smaller denominations weren't made in quantities necessary for foreign trade. The larger ones were, and that's what the US Government shipped off to other governments. So these days, they just calculate the weight, log the coins in as part of their reserves, and can't be bothered to cash in on the collector premium. It usually requires the signatures and authorization of a host of committees and officials, and most central bank directors just can't bothered. I viewed and signed off on one stash of over 50,000 old US gold coins (they have others, too) about 15 years ago. Took me the better part of a week. It was in a country so poor, hardly anything worked there. They had tens of millions of dollars worth just in the collector value premium alone, quite in addition to the gold value, but they couldn't make a decision and get approval to sell the coins, and so to this day there they sit.

[Art_from_Ark]

83. Interesting

Although since that country didn't sell its US gold coins 15 years ago, it could get about 4X for the coins today compared to 2000, when the market was pretty low.

[DFW]

84. The price of bullion was low

But the premium over the gold price was higher. They could have replaced the gold weight of the coins with straight bullion and pocketed the rest as cash or else taken their profit in straight bullion as well and increased their gold reserves for free. The only really useless move was to do nothing at all, which is exactly what they did.

[Art_from_Ark]

85. Depends on the gold coin

I don't think there was much of a premium for circulated common-date Liberty $5 and $10 gold coins in those days-- heck I was buying them in Japan for melt plus 5%. Even $10 Indians were going for melt +5%. And lots of the ones I got in those days even graded MS, usually 60-61, but occasionally there would be a 62, 63 or even 64.

[DFW]

86. There were plenty of common coins of course

But there were some pretty impressive groups of better dates in high grade as well. The numismatic premium was well into the millions even back then.

[WinkyDink]

65. "Rocks" have always had value. This isn't a new phenomenon. See: Ancient Egypt.

[hunter]

75. That doesn't make it right.

The ancient Egyptians kept slaves too, and their royal lines were so inbred it's a wonder any of them survived to adulthood.

[demmiblue]

6. Tacky, and that goes for the rest of them...

(at least Jolie's is conflict free)

[Journeyman]

7. My wife and I never had an engagement ring and our wedding ring came from a department store. . .

We've been married 38 years.

Was our's "too little"?

[Vinca]

33. Same here . . . about to celebrate 43 years.

We did spring for gold bands from a local jeweler. I think they were about $75 at the time.

[WinkyDink]

67. We made it almost to 41 without any engagement ring (death did us part). We teachers made do!

[immoderate]

8. I think it's a beautiful ring.

--imm

[linuxman]

9. I can't really be bothered to care how others spend their money.

That said, it's a bit comical. There is a balance that needs to be reached. It's not quite tacky, but it's almost there.

[jeff47]

10. The ring cost $10 million.

If you'd like some scale, that ring could feed breakfast to every child enrolled in K-12 schools in New York state.

For 5 years.

[LanternWaste]

18. Additional scale: one 32" flat screen could feed seventeen children for one year.

Additional scale: the cost of one 32" flat screen television could feed seventeen children for one year.

However, I realize that we as American rationalize our own indulgences whilst indicting the same in others, when the only difference is scale.

[RadiationTherapy]

21. Scale is, obviously, a pretty significant difference.

Sorry to be obvious.

[mythology]

38. Not to the people going hungry

We justify it to ourselves, but by always making it that other person's spending is too much, It makes it obvious that it's just a justification.

[RadiationTherapy]

61. Mmm-hm.

[Electric Monk]

49. $10 per child to last a whole year? They'd get pretty hungry.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=s9_dnav_bw_ir02_s?node=172282,!493964,1266092011,172659,6459737011&search-alias=electronics&field-size_browse-bin=1232879011&bbn=6459737011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-2&pf_rd_r=17A40PWYQPHYHMYJX9KE&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1647477102&pf_rd_i=6459737011

$170 for a 32"

[hobbit709]

50. How much do you think a 32 inch TV costs?

$250 divided by 17 divided by 365 is a hair over 4 cents a day per kid for a year.

[Reter]

53. Total WTF post

Last edited Tue Jan 26, 2016, 12:48 AM - Edit history (1)

A 32" flat screen costs between $179 and $250. That can feed 17 kids for a year? Laughable. Maybe 17 cats if you buy the cheap stuff.

[laundry_queen]

54. NO kidding.

I wish it could feed 17 kids for a year. I would've sold the flat screen my brother gave me (it was a 42&quot and fed my 4 kids until they moved out. Then I could've bought a car with the $800/month I saved a month on groceries. Wait wut?

[aikoaiko]

11. seems proportional

[TexasProgresive]

12. It has always bothered me that the "promise ring"

is more "valuable" than the wedding ring.

Like Journeyman our wedding rings came from Target of all places. they were simple gold bands. After years of marriage we found a ring we both liked better by silversmith Steven Walker "Celtic Heart."


My wife cares not for gold or diamonds. She told me she would rather a faceted piece of green coke bottle than any diamond.

[Maedhros]

13. I'm a geologist by education.

Spending so much money for a chunk of elemental carbon seems ridiculous especially considering that DeBeers et al. have warehouses the size of football stadiums full of diamonds, of which they release only a shoe-box full every year to keep prices high.

[KittyWampus]

14. For everyday wear? IMO, yes. Even with bodyguards and staff.

Looking at the pix, the stone is large and conspicuous.

It's too much of a statement piece and makes more sense as a wedding gift to be worn on the red carpet and awards etc.

Maybe she'll just be wearing a wedding ring for every day?

[dorkzilla]

20. It doesn't even look real

Anything over 3 carats always looks so phoney to me.

[cwydro]

35. It's all about the money for some people.

Having more cars, more rocks, better gifts for their kids.

It's sad.

[hfojvt]

15. oh come on

it's a vision of love

love of money

but that's still love


kinda

in some twisted way

[Orangepeel]

16. Diamond jewelry is a scam

[dorkzilla]

17. It's gross

I just got married last Valentine's Day. My wedding ring and 1ct engagement ring are both ~100 years old and came from an antique dealer in England and cost less than $1k. I bought my husband's wedding band at Costco.

[Shrike47]

19. Yes, too big. It's gonna come off when she's washing the dishes.

[lumberjack_jeff]

27. Heh. +1 n/t

[La Lioness Priyanka]

22. probably about as too much as their homes, cars, private planes etc.

[jmowreader]

23. I can think of something else that's a bit "too much"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3413518/No-fast-Newly-engaged-Mariah-Carey-James-Packer-married-exes.html

Turns out both halves of the happy couple are still married to other people.

[Warpy]

24. It's so big it looks fake, so yeah, it's vulgar

Damned thing looks like a motorcycle headlight.

[bigwillq]

25. No

I did not click on the link but folks are free to get or spend whatever kind of ring they want. It's their life, they should live it the way they want to.

[TipTok]

26. The whole concept is ridiculous...

[shanti]

28. i can't even imagine wearing a rock that big

unless i was rich enough to have several bodyguards. oh wait...

[Gman]

29. It is a bit ostentatious

Regardless of who they are.

[TreasonousBastard]

30. Have you all forgotten that 68 carat iceberg...

Burton gave to Taylor?

It was to replace the first tiny 37 carat ring.

[AngryAmish]

31. My wife has a 5 carot ring and that is a bit much.

[LittleBlue]

32. If your husband is a billionaire, probably not

That is one beautiful diamond

[Freddie Stubbs]

36. Anything over 30 karats is just showing off

[doc03]

37. Who am I to tell someone what they can spend their money on. I could

think of better uses for it though.

[hifiguy]

41. Eat The Rich!

The poor are tough and stringy.

[malaise]

42. Young Packer - damn he looks like his father

Pops must be rolling in his grave that all that money made from his cricket series and media is being blown.

[anigbrowl]

46. Doubt it. Kerry Packer was a famous gambler.

He once walked into a casino in London, blew A$15 million on roulette, and walked out stating that he had no regrets. Willingness to randomly lose large sums of money is quite common among some kinds of businessmen - a mix of excitement and investing in the self-belief that you'll be able to make it back again.

[malaise]

62. Did not know that

His gamble on World Series Cricket sure paid off big.

[beaglelover]

43. It is absolutely disgusting to flaunt wealth that way. She should be embarrassed but she's not.

[Texasgal]

44. I'd be scared to wear it in public!

I assume she has security, but if you are wearing something like that I'd be afraid that i'd damage it or lose it!

[WinkyDink]

69. Mariah has a dozen security guards. I'm sure a billionaire has a few, also.

[Jack-o-Lantern]

51. Wife and I have stainless steel bands with a tiny slice of polished iron-nickel meteorite in each.

Cost about $60 bucks per ring…(meteorites) are forever.

[brooklynite]

52. Wouldn't know...I didn't get my wife an engagement ring.

[WillowTree]

55. Aside from the fact that, by my taste, such rings are gaudy and gauche.......

.......it's their money and they're free to spend it as they see fit.

[Nye Bevan]

56. I got my wife one just over 1 carat.

The sentimental value is much more important than the size or cash value.

[Aerows]

57. No

Not if I receive it.

[Bonobo]

58. I have come to think that engagement rings are a bad idea for many reasons. nt

[tammywammy]

59. I'd worry about snagging it on things or just general banging it around.

Plus, I prefer sapphires

[Liberal_in_LA]

60. Picture

[frizzled]

63. Doesn't gold only go up to 24? Isn't that like 146% gold?

[KamaAina]

74. Karats vs. carats

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carat

Carat, karat, karet or karot may refer to:

In jewelry making:

Carat (mass), a unit of mass for gemstones, equal to 0.2 gram
Karat, a unit for measuring the fineness of gold

[Holly_Hobby]

64. When you marry for money, you earn every penny (or diamond)

That being said, it's beautiful. My rings are a paltry (by comparison) 1.73 ct. I waited 25 years for it. My first rings belonged to my mother from her first marriage.

[WinkyDink]

72. According to Forbes, MC is worth $225 million. Not a billion, granted, but still!

http://www.forbes.com/2007/01/17/richest-women-entertainment-tech-media-cz_lg_richwomen07_0118womenstars_slide_7.html

[WinkyDink]

68. Eh. My only problem is that I don't care for the cut; no enough "sparkle" (in photos, anyway).

[polly7]

70. I think it's crazy.

Is it a blood-diamond? If so ....... disgusting.

[hedgehog]

71. Let them spend as much as they want on whatever they want -AFTER

they pay a fair share of taxes!

[KamaAina]

76. I doubt that she thinks so